Sony Introduces Soneium Blockchain to Power Web3

A subsidiary of the Sony Group, Sony Blockchain Solutions Labs, alongside Startale labs, has announced plans to develop a blockchain platform called Soneium. The vision? Connect Web3 with Web2 and make it easier and more accessible for people to start using blockchain technology that is ‘accessible, scalable, efficient, and solve genuine problems’.

What is Soneium?

Soneium is a Layer 2 solution for Ethereum, which improves the data processing speed and lowers the fee amount by building on top of the Ethereum Layer 1. Using the OP Stack from Optimism, it is designed to be scalable, EVM-compatible, and developer-friendly.

This development is about delivering a comprehensive Web3 solution from the infrastructure layer to the application layer. Furthermore, users will be able to engage with Web3 games, NFT marketplaces, and various entertainment-related services through these applications in a decentralized, autonomous, and private manner.

Soneium is launching in partnership with major Web3 platforms like Astar Network, Circle, Chainlink, Alchemy, and The Graph.

Sony aims to enable and develop new services compatible with Soneium to better serve its consumers. It’s well known that Sony has many enterprises, an ever-growing portfolio of intellectual property, and plenty of experience in engaging audiences over the years. Now, Sony aims to use this experience to tap into Web3 and bring new users along with them.

Sota Watanabe, Director of Sony Block Solutions Labs, commented:

“The industry has been making something Web3 people want because of the lack of general user touchpoints and their feedback. Sony Group has strong distribution channels in multiple industries and existing users in our daily lives. Through Soneium, we will make something people want and go mainstream beyond Web3.”

Sony Block Solutions Labs is working to establish a “testnet” for Soneium, which will allow developers within the Sony Group and outside of it to work with Soneium. The Soneium testnet will precede the release of the Soneium “mainnet,” the basic-access version of Soneium’s Web3 applications.

From this base, it plans to change the world in a way that makes Web3 applications something people can use every day—alive with the same utility that makes its popular gaming, music, and film products part of many people’s daily lives.

Soneium and Sony’s Web3 Visions

Sony has been making moves towards Blockchain and Metaverse innovation for the last number of years. From patents for cross-platform NFTs to mixed-reality headsets for the Industrial Metaverse, Sony knows the potential these new digital horizons hold.

For example, Sony filed a patent last March for a new digital asset concept they call “Superfungible Tokens.” The studio is describing a paradigm hybrid between fungible and non-fungible tokens that, if fully realized, would greatly enhance digital content’s ownership and trading experience.

Finally, Jun Watanabe and Sota Watanabe of Sony Block Solutions Labs will be speaking at WebX in Tokyo on August 28th and 29th and at Token2049 in Singapore on September 18th and 19th. They will provide an overview and future direction for Soneium at both events.

Editor’s note: Written with the assistance of AI – Edited and fact-checked by Jason Newey.